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The Pinali Donation: 33 Autograph Drawings by Andrea Palladio Housed at Palazzo Chiericati Some autograph drawings by Andrea Palladio on display at Palazzo Chiericati
A collection being the richest Italian nucleus of a vast body of Palladio’s works, ensuring the great architect’s homeland the precious legacy of one of his most famous sons. The Pinali Collection, comprising 33 autograph drawings by Andrea Palladio, donated in 1838 by the Veronese collector Gaetano Pinali to the city of Vicenza, was the subject of an exhibition (November 30, 2007 - February 3, 2008) hosted in the rooms of Museo Civico di Palazzo Chiericati.
Entitled “Da naturale inclinatione guidato”, the exhibition was one of the highlights of the celebrations for the fifth centenary of Andrea Palladio’s birth. The exhibition brought back to the public, albeit for a limited time, the drawings that had been removed from the permanent exhibition for conservation reasons. Thus, at least temporarily, the donor’s wishes were fulfilled, as the condition of the gift was that the works be displayed "in a special, carefully selected cabinet" within the Vicenza Civic Museum, then under construction. Other autograph drawings by Andrea Palladio are on display at Palazzo Chiericati.The drawings, which are some of the most valuable testimonies to Palladio’s intense graphic activity and his conception of drawing as a fundamental aspect of research and design practice, have been restored for the occasion and accompanied by a new catalogue produced by Silvana Editoriale, enriched with a section dedicated to scientific investigations.
A Veronese lawyer and judge, a man of broad cultural interests and a passionate collector, Pinali chose Vicenza for his collection (purchased from the Venetian widow Dal Peder) precisely because it was the “homeland of their author,” where – as he himself wrote in the deed of donation – “they can thus be more appropriately at the service of art history and scholars than anywhere else.”.
The corpus donated by Pinali to the Vicenza Museum comprises 33 sheets, 17 of which are also used on the verso, for a total of 50 drawings. It is the most important collection of Palladian works after that of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London, which boasts over 300 drawings once belonging to Inigo Jones and Lord Burlington.
The drawings, some of which were created for the edition of I Quattro Libri, include major drawings drawn by Palladio from his study of classical antiquities, directly observed during repeated trips to Rome or other locations, such as Tivoli, Pola, Ravenna, as well as drawings from antiquity copied from originals by others, such as the famous Small Temple on Clitumno, all annotated with measurements and autograph inscriptions, and finally a precious series of “presentation drawings”, drawn up in definitive form for presentation to clients and relating to some of the great Venetian buildings designed by Palladio: the Rialto Bridge, the Façade of the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, and a Palazzo on the Water.
